Fear of Expiration
by BeHindThEthOuGhT
Summary: The Flock are closer than ever, with Fang and Max's relationship blossoming. But they're world will be flipped upside-down by one shocking thing: a black tattoo-looking mark on the back of one member's neck.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, it's me! K, I got this kind of randomly and I don't know whether I'll continue it or not. Just trying it out. BTW: Max, Fang, and Iggy are 17, Nudge is 14, Gazzy is 11, and Angel is 9.**

_(Max's POV) _My name is Maximum Ride. I live with 5 other kids that are just like me. By that I mean kids that are only 98% human. The other 2% is what gives us or favorite ability: the ability to fly. The other 2%, as you might have guessed, is avian. That 2% gave us our wings that we love so much. But it can also be a curse. We will never be normal. We will always be reminder that we're different. We will be perused by many. Such as the freak scientists that 'created' us. Many years ago, the flock and I escaped from a place of imprisonment that we call the School. That place is our worst nightmare. We never want to go back there. Ever.

I'm now sitting around the fire with the rest of the flock. That is where this story begins.

**Sorry this was kinda short. This was just a little intro. Next chapters will be wayyy longer.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, here comes chapter 2! Enjoy, it might be a little bit until I update next.**

_(Max POV) _The flock, my sister Ella, my mom, and I were all sitting in my mom's living room. Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Ella were sitting on the couch. My mom and Angel were sitting on chairs across from them, and Fang and I were sitting on the loveseat.

My mom was talking to us all about how this year we had to be 'good at school' and 'not get ourselves expelled.' Last year had been our first year of school. Gazzy and Iggy had gotten expelled for setting off stink bombs; Fang had ditched so many times he failed all his classes; my mom had taken Angel out because she kept mind controlling all the teachers; and I had been expelled for getting in a fight and accidentally breaking a boy's nose. Nudge was the only one who didn't get expelled or fail her classes. I don't know why Ella was there.

After my mom finished talking, we all drifted off in different directions. I started feeling a little depressed at the thought of school starting in one week. None of the flock members are fans of school, except for Nudge. For some reason she loves it.

I went upstairs into my room. The nice thing about my mom's house is that the only people that have to share a room are Nudge and Angel. My room is right across the hall from theirs. Fang's room is right next to mine. I have a balcony off my room. I walked out onto it and climbed up on the roof. I sat there for a little while, stretching my wings and watching the sunset.

Fang's window opened, and he climbed out, flying up to sit next to me.

"What's up?" I asked. In response, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing," was his answer.

We just sat there, watching the sunset. It seemed like one of those romantic things. Fang's eyes shined in the red light, glistening a deep maroon.

After a while, I heard a giggle from behind us. We both turned around. Nudge and Angel were hovering behind us, covering their mouths with their hands to keep from laughing.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "How long have you two been there?"

"A while," Nudge said, giggling again.

"What?" I asked. "We were just watching the sunset."

"Aww," Angel said. "So romantic!" They both erupted into laughter.

I looked at Fang, who was blushing furiously. He jumped off the roof, climbing back into his window. I rolled my eyes at the girls, who were still laughing, and climbed back in my window.

I woke up to the annoying blaring of my alarm. I sighed and rolled out of bed, slouching to the bathroom. I took a quick, cold shower to wake me up, and then wrapped a fluffy white towel around myself. I opened the door to go back to my room, and ran straight into Fang. I blushed, and walked past him into my room. As I walked past, I thought I heard him say, "Nice towel."

Once back in my room, I put on a pair of jean shorts and a white tank top. After I brushed my hair, I ran downstairs to eat a quick breakfast. Iggy and Nudge were already eating some of the waffles that my mom had made. I grabbed three of them and poured a bunch of syrup all over them.

Just then, Fang walked in, grabbing a couple waffles for himself and sitting down next to me. His long, silky black hair was swept to one side, and he was dressed in his traditional black jeans, t shirt, and shoes. He looked calm and cool, not at all nervous for the first day of school like me.

Angel and Gazzy then entered the kitchen. Angel kind of giggled and went over to whisper something to Nudge. I rolled my eyes and kept eating.

My mom and Ella came downstairs. Ella sat down next to Nudge and Angel and joined in their little 'whisper-conversation.'

"Here you go," Mom said, tossing me the keys to the van. "You can drive them to school now."

At the beginning of the summer, Fang and I had gotten our driver's licenses. We had spent a lot of the first month of summer vacation cooped up in a hot, smelly room with a bunch of other teenagers listening to boring lectures about the different meanings of road signs. Not the best way to spend summer, but Dr. Martinez had insisted.

After everyone was done eating, we all piled into my mom's minivan. Fang sat in the passenger seat, with Iggy and Gazzy behind us, and then Nudge, Angel, and Ella in the back.

I had to drop Angel off at the elementary school first (we go to public school, BTW). Then I dropped Gazzy off at middle school. The rest of us are all in high school. Fang, Iggy, and I are seniors, Ella's a junior, and Nudge is a freshman. I pulled into a spot in the student parking lot and we got out. Ella and Nudge's lockers are right next to each others, and then they have the same first period Economics class. Fang's and Iggy's lockers are on either side of mine. They have the same English class first period. Lucky me, I have Geometry.

The first four classes of the day were completely boring. The teachers passed textbooks out and talked about 'class expectations' and crap like that. My friend Charlotte, who I haven't seen all summer, was in the same third hour P.E. class as me, so that wasn't that bad.

At lunch, I sat next to Charlotte, Kara, and Violet, who are my best friends outside of the flock. Brandon, Violet's boyfriend, and his friend, Jason, sat with us. Charlotte and Kara are seniors and Violet is a junior. Brandon is a senior and Jason is a junior.

I saw Fang sitting with Iggy and a couple of other guys I didn't know, most of them wearing the same type of black clothes as Fang. He glanced over at me a couple times, but didn't come over and talk to me.

The rest of the day was the same as the first half, except me and Fang had History together. He sat next to me, giving me 'Oh, my God, this class is so boring. Why didn't I ditch?' looks most of the time.

When we got home, my mom had warm chocolate chip cookies out for a snack. While I ate like ten of them, she asked us how our day was. Every one except Nudge replied "Boring."

"I met this really cute guy in my P.E. class," she said. "He's on the basketball and soccer teams. His name's Logan and he's really cute and smart, and did I mention cute? He's so nice and his locker is close to mine and-"

"He sounds nice," I said cutting her off. Once the Nudge Channel gets going, it's hard to turn off.

I went upstairs in my room to listen to music when I heard a crash from down stairs. Oh, boy.

**Okay, so how did you like it? Review please! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, here's #3! Enjoy! BTW: notice the POV change.**

_(Fang POV) _I heard a crash. I ran out into the hallway, not knowing where it was coming from. Max ran out of her room, too. We both ran downstairs into the kitchen. A woman was standing there, with Dr. Martinez cowering in front of her. The woman turned to smile at us. We immediately tensed and readied for a fight.

The woman's teeth turned into fangs, and her fingernails into claws. She jumped at Max, faster than any human. Max caught a face full of creepy cat lady. She tried to shove her off, but her claws had dug into her skin.

The rest of the flock came running down the stairs just as I kicked the thing in the ribs. The cat/person thing screeched, flying off and hitting the wall, and eight more appeared.

They through themselves at us. One each went for Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge, and Angel. One more went to Max. Three came rushing up at me. Crap.

_(Max POV) _Another cat person came rushing at me. This time I dogged to the side, kicking her in the stomach as she passed. She grabbed onto the wall and pushed off, landing right in front of me. She smiled, revealing many sharp, pointy teeth. She dove at me, digging her fangs into my arm. I pulled her off, but she took a small chunk of my arm with her. I punched the cat person in the face, knocking her out.

I looked around to asses the situation. Angel had dealt with hers and was helping Gazzy. Iggy and Nudge were okay, together attempting to eliminate the cat lady that had give Iggy a huge scratch on the side of his cheek. My mom was laying on the floor, passes out, with Ella bending over her to make sure she was okay.

Three cat things were beating the crap out of Fang. Occasionally he would pop up and get a good couple kicks in, but then he would go down under flailing claws again.

I threw myself in the fray, grabbing one in a headlock and spinning her around to kick her in the chest. She went flying into the wall, smacking her head and passing out. The last two me and Fang dealt with.

"Report!" I shouted.

"Okay here," Gazzy and Angel said.

"I got a kinda bad scratch on my cheek and a bloody nose but I'm good," Iggy replied.

"I'm all good." Nudge said.

"Me and mom are okay," Ella said.

I looked over at Fang, who was leaning against a wall with his eyes closed. "You okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine," he said.

After we cleaned the place up, we all sat down to discuss what we were going to do. My mom insisted that we stay at her house, but I didn't want to put her and Ella in any more danger.

"How about this," Iggy said. "We can take a little 'vacation.' Just for, like, a week. We'll just go around places for a little bit, and then come back here, Compromise."

"Max," my mom said, looking at me pleadingly. "What if they come back while you're gone? You know they'll come back here. I'll be safer if you're with me."

I thought about that. "Why don't we all go on vacation?" Nudge suggested. "Like a normal family? It'd be so fun!"

"That could work," I said. "We could drive somewhere, like…"

"Florida!" Gazzy said. "Disney World!"

"New York!" Nudge said. "I loved New York."

California was Iggy's suggestion.

"Okay," I said. "Let's vote."

The final vote was: Gazzy and Angel for Florida; Nudge, Ella, my mom, and I for New York; and Fang and Iggy for California.

"Looks like we're going to New York," I said.

Nudge and Ella smiled and high-fived.

"When are we leaving?" Fang asked.

I looked at my mom. Her car, her money, her decision.

"Tomorrow?" she asked.

"Cool." Fang said.

"Let's go pack," I said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4! WOO! Read on, read on. Just ignore my little outbursts. ****They happen a lot, especially when I'm all hyped up on mountain dew. You'll get used to it.**

_(Max POV) _We all went upstairs and packed up for our trip. We figured we'd go for about 2 weeks. Nudge and Ella spent time obsessing over the perfect outfits to bring. Sigh.

It didn't take me long to pack; I basically threw a bunch of clothes in a bag and wall-ah! I'm done. I walked out into the hallway, going to see how far every one was with their packing. Gazzy and Iggy were both done, and already in their pajamas. Ella and Nudge had only packed 2 outfits! They explained that they had to have the perfect outfits. My response was rolling my eyes.

I quietly knocked on Fang's door. He opened it, revealing himself not wearing a shirt. He had fresh scratches all over his muscular chest and a lot on his arms, too.

While I stood staring at his six-pack for a minute, he asked, "What do you want?"

"Umm, are you done packing?" I asked.

He nodded, opening the door wider to reveal a full black duffle bag sitting on his bed. That was when I realized something. I had never been in Fang's room before. When I told Fang this, he gestured for me to come in.

I walked in. His room was dark; the only source of light a small desk lamp. His bed sheets were black, along with his curtains and the leather chair he had in the corner. The thick black carpet was fuzzy and soft.

"It's so... Dark. There's no color," I said.

"Maybe I like it that way," he replied, giving me one of his drop dead gorgeous half smiles.

Fang smiling made me smile, and we sat down together on the end of his bed. Fang cleared his throat, and said, "Umm, so about earlier today, uh, thank you for jumping in when you did. I probably would've been in shreds if you'd waited another minute." He kind of blushed, as he often did when he talked more than one sentence.

"No problem," I said. "You've done the same for me on many different occasions."

"Yeah…" We looked at each other. I felt some kind of weird tingling in my stomach, and before I knew what was happening, I was kissing Fang. His hands were on my waist and I had my arms wrapped around his neck. Our lips were moving in sync, pressing firmly against each other. His lips were warm and soft. I felt his hands sliding up and down my back, and knotted my fingers in his silky hair.

When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing raggedly. "Umm," I said, quickly standing up. "Good night," I called over my shoulder as I left the room as fast as I could. Fang was still sitting on his bed, looking kind of shocked.

I locked myself in the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. I kissed Fang, I thought. Fang kissed me! I ran back into my room to get ready to go to bed, even though I was sure I would have trouble getting to sleep.

**How did you like it? Review please! I'll give you cookies ****jk probably not but review anyway! It's good for your soul. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, I had a review asking some questions, that I can't figure out a way to make them fit into the story so I'm just putting them as author's notes:**

**Why are they going to school? **_**Dr. Martinez wants them to try and live a normal life.**_

**What's the deal with Max and Fang? **_**Read previous chapter.**_

**Did the Itex thing end? **_**Yes, but apparently there is someone still trying to get them (hence the cat people).**_

**Did that answer some questions?** **I hope so. Now sit back and enjoy this next chapter.**

_(Max POV)_ The next morning, we all piled in my mom's van. We were all prepared for a couple days driving up to New York, and then a week stay. Nudge, Ella, and Angel were in the backseat; Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy in the middle; and then me riding shotgun with my mom driving.

I was kind of avoiding Fang since he kissed me last night. There had been an uncomfortable moment when I had run into him on the stairs on my way to breakfast. He had looked like he was going to say something, but of course, my terrible confrontational skills led me to hurry past him before he got a word out.

I looked in the rearview mirror to see what everyone was doing. Nudge and Ella were reading the magazines that they had brought; Angel was listening to the iPod my mom had gotten her for Christmas last year; Gazzy and Iggy were talking quietly, making me very suspicious; and Fang was on the new laptop my mom had bought for all of us, no doubt updating his blog.

I reached into my bag to pull out my iPod. I popped my earphones in and closed my eyes.

_(Fang POV) _I closed the laptop, sliding it back into my bag. I looked up at Max, who had her earphones in and looked like she had fallen asleep. Her nose kind of twitched, and I thought of how beautiful she looked.

I leaned my head back against the headrest, sighing. I heard Angel giggle, and looked back to see her whispering to Nudge and Ella. I rolled my eyes and looked out the window.

We were driving through a kind of mini-desert, surrounded by sand and some dead plants. Up in the sky I could see circling hawks, and I remembered the time we had lived with a flock of hawks who had taught us some cool flying maneuvers. I missed those days.

_(Max POV) _By the time I woke up to the sounds of Nudge and Gazzy complaining of being hungry, we were out of Arizona and into the north-west corner of New Mexico.

"I'm starving. Can we _please _stop to eat soon?" Nudge whined.

"There's a fast food restaurant in a mile. You can you make it that long without dieing of starvation?" my mom asked.

"Nudge," I said groggily. "Cool it, ok? I know you're hungry but I think you can go five minutes without complaining."

"Sorry, Max," Nudge said, finally quieting down.

"Why is it that they only listen to you?" my mom whispered.

"They aren't used to having to listen to adults," I whispered back.

"Oh," she replied, nodding. She pulled into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, and we all piled inside. It was almost 2 o'clock, so we were the only people inside.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the lady behind the counter asked.

My mom gestured to me. "Umm, I'll take three double cheeseburgers, two large fries, two apple pies, a large coke, and a chocolate shake," I ordered.

She nodded, punching it all in.

Fang stepped up and said, "I'll take two double cheeseburgers, two chicken sandwiches, three large fries, and a large root beer."

She put it all in and asked, "Is that all?"

"No," Nudge said, stepping forward. "I'll take three chicken sandwiches, a Caesar salad, two apple pies, and a large sprite."

The lady raised her eyebrows but continued to put in all the orders. By the time everyone was done ordering, she said, "You know, that's quite a bit of food. Are you sure you want all that, because we don't give refunds."

"Yes, we want it all," I said, getting impatient.

"Alright then, your total is one hundred fifty-seven dollars and twenty eight cents."

Mom pulled out her credit card and handed it to the lady.

"I don't know how I'm going to afford feeding you guys this entire trip," she said to me.

I smiled apologetically.

When we got our food, we sat at a big table and started eating. After about half an hour, all of us were sitting back, patting our very full stomachs.

We all piled back into the car and were off again. We had done that another time before we pulled into a Holiday Inn for the night. Mom got three connected rooms with two double beds each. Angel, Nudge, and I would sleep in one; Fang, Iggy, and Gasman in another; and Mom and Ella in the last room.

After my mom went to bed, we all gathered in the boys' room. We sat around and watched TV for awhile, until Nudge complained of being bored.

Then Angel said the magic words that made everyone but her, Ella, and Nudge groan: "Let's play Truth or Dare!"

She made Bambi eyes until everyone agreed to play. We all sat on a circle on the floor.

"Can I go first?" Nudge asked.

Everyone nodded. "Umm… Max, truth or dare?"

"Uh, truth," I said.

"Have you ever kissed anyone in this room, and if so, who?"

I blushed, knowing that Angel must have told her about last night with Fang.

"Yes," I answered. "Umm, I kissed…" I blush furiously and finished quickly, "Fang."

Everyone but Fang and I erupted into laughter, while Iggy said, "I told you so! I told you they kissed! Pay up!" Gazzy handed him five bucks.

By the time they finally quieted down, both Fang and I were blushing.

"Ok, truth or dare, Iggy?" I asked.

"Dare," he said.

"I dare you to…" I said, thinking. "Kiss Ella!"

He blushed, and then walked over and kissed Ella on the cheek. After he sat back down he asked, "Truth or dare Fang?"

He looked a little startled and replied, "Dare."

"Kiss Max, on the lips!"

He gave him an "I'm going to kill you later" look as he walked over to me. He bent over and kissed me on the lips, held it for a couple seconds, and then pulled away. I felt my cheeks grow warm and I stared at my lap.

Nudge giggled and squealed, "That's so cute!"

I shot her a death glare, and the game continued. Eventually everyone was asked a question or dared to do something.

Soon I decided that we had better go to bed before we woke up my mom. She would not be happy to wake up at two in the morning to find us playing truth or dare.

Nudge and Angel got one bed and I got the other. As I crawled under the fluffy white covers, all I could think about was Fang's kiss.

**Ok, I threw in the truth or dare part out of complete randomness. I don't know if it was all that good, so PLEASE REVIEW! Should I do more Fax, or focus a little more on the story line? I WOULD LOVE TO HERE YOUR OPINION! I WILL GIVE YOU COOKIE IF YOU PRESS THE BUTTON! Press the button! You know you want to!**


	6. Author's Note

Hey sorry to all you people that were so excited for another chapter. I just had to take this time to tell you about my blog. It's called Behind the Thought. Here's the link: .com/site/behindthethoughtblog/

CHECK IT OUT! THANKS!

~ Liz


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